ECONOMICS IS “A COLLECTION OF FUNNY STORIES ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES”. John Cochrane, at his Grumpy Economist blog, posts a response to the question Russ Roberts asks (what do economists know?). His answer:
“Our field is, perhaps, best described as a collection of funny stories about unintended consequences. (I became an economist one day very young, reading a newspaper story about a program to get rid of poisonous snakes. The government had offered a bounty on each dead snake. Guess what happened. Hint: It’s easy to raise snakes.)”
In a Simpsons episode, Bart protects two rare lizards such that they are able to breed. The population explodes. Springfield’s solution is to procure snakes to eat the lizards, and subsequently a type of gorilla that eats the snakes.
When Lisa points out that the city will then be stuck with gorillas, Principal Skinner responds, “No, that’st he beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around the gorillas simply freeze to death.”
Very elegant.